


Near Wild Heaven

by MiniNephthys



Category: Shin Megami Tensei II, ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 | JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-08
Updated: 2014-03-08
Packaged: 2018-01-15 00:04:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1283803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiniNephthys/pseuds/MiniNephthys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some demon hunting is done, and Mista has a crisis of faith.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Near Wild Heaven

Generally, Fugo only saw Stands when they were actually being used. There wasn’t much point in keeping yours out if you weren’t doing even a mundane task with it.

Thus he had to do a double-take on passing a kid with a Stand towering over him on the street.

It had to be a Stand. The shape was human enough, and the black hair down to the back looked normal, but the face was replaced by solid blue plastic. The rest of the body was covered with light armor, primarily black with orange and yellow straps.

It was following a small child, probably about ten years old. The boy was walking with determination, obviously intent on getting somewhere quickly but not rushing enough to bump into people and waste time.

Mista tapped on his shoulder. “Think we should follow him?” he asked, quietly enough not to be heard by the kid.

“He’s definitely not one of ours. Even under the old boss, we never let them join that young,” said Fugo. “We’d better trail him for a while.”

The streets were busy enough, even at sunset, to make it simple to follow him through the city for a few blocks without drawing attention. Then he turned onto a less-used street into a residential area.

“Is there anything here besides houses?” Fugo asked under his breath, coming to a stop.

Mista shook his head. “We don’t have any operatives living here either, as far as I know. It’s all rich guys.”

The boy was down to the end of the road when he turned his head back to them. “If you’re going to follow, you should hurry up,” he said. “I don’t have time to waste waiting for you to decide.”

Fugo and Mista looked at each other, then moved to catch up with the boy.

“How long have you known we were following you?” asked Fugo, keeping a wary eye on the Stand.

“Only a block or so. You’re good at this, but it’s not like it’s the first time I’ve been followed…” The boy paused. “Well. It is, technically, the first time anyone’s seriously followed me. But it’s also technically not.”

“What does that mean, ‘technically’?” asked Mista.

“Past lives,” said the child. “My REM, which is what I’m calling this here-” he pointed to the Stand behind him, “brings back my memories. Besides being really good for not misplacing my homework, most of the use I get out of it is from past lives. By the way, are either of you religious?”

“I’m not particularly religious.” Fugo glanced Mista’s direction. “This guy’s probably the most faithful person I know.”

“Then he might want to turn around and go home.” The boy kept up his steady pace. “The worst case scenario of what’s about to happen involves some demon hunting. It’d be better for him to leave now than later.”

“Wh- are you messing with us?”

Mista received only a shake of the head in reply.

“I think,” said Fugo, calling Purple Haze, “you’d probably better explain what’s going on.”

“There’s a house on this street,” the boy answered, “where the resident has a circle for demon summoning set up in the basement. Ordinarily, that’d be his business and not mine. The problem isn’t even that he has the summoning circle set up incorrectly, because he has it right. The problem is that he has the parts for controlling the summoned demon completely wrong. If he calls anything through that circle, it’ll either be completely under its own control, or, possibly, berserk.”

“...And what made you such an expert on summoning demons?” asked Fugo in disbelief, while Mista spluttered.

“I used to do that for survival. In a lot of lifetimes, actually.” The kid glanced back at them and came to a stop. “If you’re going to call me anything for this, use ‘Aleph’, it has the most clout. We’re here.”

The house looked no different from any other house on the outside, except its front door was slightly ajar. Aleph ignored it and headed toward the back of the house, where a few bushes blocked low windows, and made a motion with his hand.

REM uprooted a bush and tossed it aside.

“Couldn’t you have gone in the front-” Fugo began, moving to look through the windows. “-you’re not lying.”

“Are you serious-?” Mista crouched and nearly fell over at the sight.

Visible now through the windows, a large eldritch-looking symbol was drawn on the floor in ink. Around the corners, four statuettes of different animals were placed. Also visible was a human body, with wounds that looked like they came from teeth and claws.

“Too late… Back up for a second.” After directing REM to punch through a window, Aleph jumped through into the room. He first headed to the body, feeling the temperature. “He’s been dead for… not very long. The demon he summoned couldn’t have gotten too far away, that’s good for us.”

Mista gulped. “We’re going to track it down?”

“Unless you prefer having a demon out there potentially killing humans, yes. Give me a minute.” Aleph picked up one of the statuettes and switched it with one across the room. “If he’d only had this right he would have survived. He’s even written down the correct incantation,” he said, pulling a small notebook out of a pool of blood. “Completely preventable. -Well, we’d better go.”

Fugo helped pull him out from the basement, and took another look at the bloody scene inside before turning away. “Where are we supposed to look? I didn’t exactly see a trail of gore leading out of here…”

“Somewhere humans go to, but not in large numbers. Some place that a demon could kill a human without witnesses. And not too far from here.” Aleph tapped his chin. “Do you know any place like that?”

“There’s a park near here,” Mista said. “Especially after dark it doesn’t get a lot of visitors, but there’s still couples who come for privacy.”

“It’s a good place to start, at least,” said Aleph.

Twilight had set in by the time they reached the park. The grounds were empty, or seemed so at first glance. Out of the corner of his eye Fugo saw movement between the far-away trees, and he turned immediately to try to track it.

“Further in. That’s not a human’s speed.”

Aleph nodded and immediately headed deeper into the park. Mista muttered a “shouldn’t we be leading?” but followed close behind along with Fugo.

They didn’t have to wait much longer. Emerging from the shadows of the trees, a red hound much larger than any normal dog snarled at them, lashing its split tail.

“A Garm, if I remember right. This should be manageable.” Aleph stepped carefully behind REM. “Mostly what we should be concerned with is its fire attacks and its speed. It’s nothing to worry about as far as demons go-”

The Garm leapt at them in that moment, sinking its teeth deep into REM’s arm. Aleph staggered backward, clutching his arm in pain, as Mista shot two bullets into the demon’s side.

After letting go of REM, who had been trying to shake it off, the Garm threw itself at Mista with enough force to knock him to the ground. Mista pointed his gun straight at the Garm’s head, two Sex Pistols ready, but when the Garm opened its mouth and let out a burst of flame, the Sex Pistols and Mista were both torched by the point-blank shot.

“Mista-!” Fugo cried over the high-pitched screams of the Sex Pistols.

REM pulled the Garm by the tail off of Mista with its still-good arm. The demon growled, and instead of attacking there, backed off enough to release another jet of flame towards the Stand.

That was a mistake. That space was enough to let Purple Haze move in. Withstanding the fire surrounding it, the Stand crushed one bulb in its fist near the Garm’s head. The virus worked almost instantaneously, the Garm crying out in pain and terror as its body was consumed.

Aleph, still holding his wounded arm, looked over at Fugo. “Has anyone ever told you you’re scarier than God?”

“I might’ve heard something like that once.” Fugo knelt by Mista. “Are you okay?”

Mista groaned, touching his charred face and wincing. “Think so. Number 3 and Number 5 might be out of commission for a while. We’re done now, right?”

“I didn’t see any evidence that the summoner called more than one demon before he was killed. We’re done.” Aleph dug into his pockets. “...I’ve got band-aids but I don’t think they cover burn wounds, I’m sorry to you both.”

“It’s fine. We handle fights like this all the time.” Fugo helped Mista to his feet. “Can you get home by yourself? It’s late for a kid your age to be out.”

“I have more memories than you do, doesn’t that mean I count as older?” Aleph asked with a huff. “I’ll be alright. Thank you for the help, I’m not sure how well I would have done by myse… shit.”

Fugo and Mista looked at him.

“Remember when I said that the worst case scenario was demon hunting? I was wrong.” A clap of thunder and a bright flash of light punctuated his statement. “The worst case scenario is _angels_.”

The sudden appearance of a man cloaked in black, standing by a flaming wheel was impossible to miss. He spoke in a voice that carried power in its reverberations. “Children of man, you are in the presence of an angel of the Lord. Pay your respects.”

“What are you doing,” Aleph hissed at Mista, who had fallen to his knees again. “You should be running, as in running away! I’ll distract him-”

“Shut up and pay respect,” Mista hissed back.

Fugo awkwardly stood beside the two of them. “I’m not sure I-”

“You, false Messiah, who has committed the most unforgivable sin.” The angel addressed Aleph. “You cannot be permitted to receive the memories of your previous lives. You have gained too much power.”

“So what are you going to do about it? Are you going to kill me?” asked Aleph, defiantly staring up at him. “I don’t see the world ending around me yet. Wouldn’t that be defying the nature of your God’s curse?”

The angel scowled. “There still must be punishment for your insolence. Your allies will take it for you.” He slightly raised his hand, and another burst of fire appeared.

It would have hit Fugo had Aleph not thrown himself into its path. “I told you,” he said through gritted teeth, “to run already, you morons.”

Fugo yanked Mista back to his feet. “Somehow leaving you to fight by yourself doesn’t really appeal to me,” he answered, Purple Haze at the ready.

“Are we really fighting-?” Another burst of flame hit Mista dead-on. “But you’re an angel-!”

“Those who would aid sinners are sinners themselves,” the angel intoned.

Mista gulped. “So… any advice, demon hunter?”

“This is a Throne. Fire attacks are bad, light attacks are worse because they’re possibly instant kills, he probably won’t use them though. Capable of completely healing himself. Normally I’d slam him with ice attacks but that’s not really an option...” Aleph braced himself against another burst of fire. “Based on the amount of damage we can do versus how fast he can heal himself, I’d say it’s a hundred percent impossible to win.”

“That’s not good odds.” Mista shot at the Throne and watched the injury heal up with little more than a murmured word of power. “Fugo?”

“He’s not going to give us that much space.” Fugo had Purple Haze throw a non-virus-infected punch. “Unless you want me to risk infecting you two.”

“I’ll take my chances with the angel, thanks.” Mista grimaced, then called up a Sex Pistol and whispered to it as REM took another shot of fire.

“Are you serious?” asked Number 7. “What if I mess up?”

“Don’t mess up!”

“No pressure or anything…” Number 7 gulped and zipped off, in the direction they had come from.

“What was that about?” asked Fugo, circling around the Throne. “If I can lure it to me-”

Mista just shook his head and aimed his gun at the angel again. “Don’t sacrifice yourself yet. I’ve got a stupid and dangerous plan.”

Fugo raised an eyebrow. “Good, I don’t have to call it stupid and dangerous for you. What is it?”

“You’ll see. Give me… ten minutes sounds right,” said Mista.

“I’m not sure we’ll last ten minutes,” said Aleph. “But I’ll try.”

It was six minutes later that they were on their last verges of strength. Aleph was charred nearly to a crisp, still barely managing to stand, and the other two weren’t much better. The Throne was still healing itself every time they managed to get it wounded, and matters were not looking good.

Which is why when Aleph suddenly stopped attacking and started laughing, even the angel looked at him like he was insane.

“He...he… I heard it.” Aleph brought a burnt hand to his mouth to cover his laughter. “You’re the kind of angel who’s weak to ice, aren’t you? I heard it.”

“Will you speak sense, false Messiah?” asked the angel. “If you seek to mislead me-”

”Hurry up! Go faster!”

“I’m heeing as fast as I can, hee-ho!”

“No, I heard it too.” Fugo stopped attacking as well. “Mista… one of those voices is your Sex Pistol, but the other…”

“The sweet, sweet sound of hee-ho.” Aleph’s grin could not get any wider. “Mista, your luck is impeccable.”

“Mista!” Number 7 returned to hover at Mista’s shoulder. “I got one! I got you a demon!”

The demon in question was a short white humanoid, masked and with a cape. “Hee-ho! Frost Ace is here to save the day!” it yelled, with a wide and toothy smile.

The Throne immediately turned its fire attack to the Frost Ace. Instead of scorching it, however, the fire simply bounced off its body. The ice that the Frost Ace sent blasting towards the Throne, on the other hand, hit its mark and made the Throne cry out in pain more than any attack the three humans had managed to land.

Aleph nodded as the fight continued just as one-sidedly. “And that’s exactly why… you want to have the right elements...”

As the Throne collapsed, Aleph collapsed as well. Fugo caught him before he hit the ground.

“He’s just unconscious,” he said. “Memories or not, that was a lot for a kid to take. We’d better get him to Giorno, or he’ll never be able to explain these injuries to his parents.”

There were no further hassles for the night, save for the Frost Ace following at Mista’s heels and Mista groaning about his crisis of faith. Giorno took the explanation of ‘we fought a demon and an angel tonight and got ourselves set on fire about two dozen times’ well and fixed them all back up to full health.

“Do you mind if I spend the night?” Aleph asked after coming to. “In payment, I could work on a way for you to keep your Frost Ace in storage, I’m sure I have the memories to be able to homebrew an app for that if you let me borrow your phone…”

Mista threw his hands in the air. “Sure, why not keep demons in my phone? The world used to make sense to me...”

“Mista.” When Mista lowered his arms and looked over at him, Fugo went on. “Thank you for saving our lives.”

A sheepish smile. “Well, you know, it was nothing.”


End file.
